Maybe A Garbage Truck Garage Is Not The Best Place To Set Up A Wellness Clinic

With more than 200 sq. miles in area, the city of Chicago should have plenty of space to set up a temporary clinic for city employees’ wellness screenings. And yet some city workers had their blood drawn at a clinic set up inside the same garage where garbage trucks rest between trash pickups.

“The floors and walls were all covered in dirt,” one Streets and Sanitation worker tells WBBM radio about the garage. “Maggots and rats tend to show up at night, so we decided not to take this test.”

The employee opted to snap photos (more at CBS Chicago’s website) rather than have his blood drawn, but the photos do show several workers having their blood drawn, regardless of the conditions at the garage.

The Department of Streets and Sanitation tells WBBM that it’s looking into the issue. Though we can’t imagine who ever thought this was even close to an idea in the first place.

It seems that Chicago doesn’t think well of its workers. One positive in this situation is that the “wellness screeners” wouldn’t have to pay extra to get rid of their sharps and other medical waste, they could just toss it into the back of one of the garbage trucks when no one was looking.